'It's your BUSiness': Transit riders urged to report criminal incidents to Crime Stoppers
'If you see something, say something': Robert MacKenzie
Following recent incidents on Winnipeg Transit buses, including an attack on a driver and the stabbing of a mother and teenaged daughter, Winnipeg Crime Stoppers has launched a campaign urging riders to report crimes anonymously.
Fifty advertisements that proclaim "It's your BUSiness" appeared on bus benches in different locations in the city on Monday to raise awareness about troubles on the transit system, Winnipeg Crime Stoppers chair Robert MacKenzie said during a news conference on Tuesday.
"It seemed that the timing was right for it, and that it was a good opportunity to enhance transit safety and promote transit safety with everything that's been going on recently," MacKenzie told reporters.
Insp. Doug Roxburgh said Winnipeg police are asking for the public's assistance in identifying a man who assaulted a bus driver on Main Street and James Avenue at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 11.
A police spokesperson told CBC the passenger on the northbound bus attacked the driver without provocation, punching him in face and body. The driver sustained minor injuries to the head but did not require treatment from paramedics, police said.
The passenger who attacked the bus driver fled before police arrived.
That incident happened four days after a 40-year-old woman and her daughter, 16, were stabbed on a Winnipeg transit bus near Portage Avenue and Valour Road.
Police have yet to make an arrest in either case.
MacKenzie said Winnipeg Transit serves approximately 171,000 passengers on an average weekday.
"That's a lot of eyes and ears on the transit system, so what we're asking is very simple: If you see something, say something," he said.
"Every transit rider deserves a safe journey and we're hoping that this program will create that education and promote that awareness."
Several transit-related crimes have been solved based on people giving information to police about where and when a violent individual got on a bus, the person's name and a description, MacKenzie said.
Last year, Winnipeg Crime Stoppers received 4,006 anonymous tips from the public, and a record-breaking number of tips is expected this year, MacKenzie said. The program has received 4,059 tips so far this year.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, which represents more than 1,400 transit workers, including drivers, in Winnipeg and Brandon has recorded 183 safety incidents on buses this year, a spokesperson said in an email.
The union says there were 257 safety incidents in 2023 and 130 in 2022, including verbal threats with weapons, attempted assaults and physical assaults.
Union president Chris Scott said the new campaign is one more step toward keeping drivers and passengers safe on Winnipeg Transit, but more needs to be done.
The assault on the bus driver on Oct. 11 was one of three that happened that day, he said.
"They are becoming more violent in nature and they are, in the majority of cases, unprovoked," Scott said.
Most individuals involved such incidents are not paying the bus fare, he said.
"Nobody should be afraid to go to work, and nobody should be afraid that they're not going to come home from work," Scott said.
Scott says the most recent incident he knew about took place at 7 a.m. on Tuesday in the South Pointe neighbourhood when a passenger acting erratically tried to get on the bus dashboard to attack the driver, who was protected by a shield.
The other passengers got off the bus while the driver escaped through the driver-side window without any injuries, he said.
The transit union is looking at more ways to keep bus drivers safe, including revamping the shields to make them more enclosed and lobbying to have the driver's compartment fully enclosed, he said.
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With files from Zubina Ahmed